Inspiration
One of the first questions people often ask me is, “What was your inspiration for writing this book?” Hmm! Well it’s a bit like asking a bricklayer, “So what inspired you to build that house?” In answer to the question I would say, it’s not so much inspiration as perspiration. First you have to have the will to write something, and then you sit and generate ideas, thus developing a plot. With Bill Reyner I wanted to write something that was “INSPIRED” by the surrounds.
After much thought on the matter, I decided to choose as my source of inspiration the town of Parry Sound. I’d been there before and thought the so-called 30,000 islands would give me an exciting backdrop. Somehow visiting the little town with my notebook in hand I developed the rules for Bill Reyner. At that time I had no intention of writing a series. From then on INSPIRATION became automatic. I’d seen Bill and followed him through one adventure and then one day I stood and looked down into Tew Falls and that’s the point I had an inspiration. I suddenly needed to write a story about a skull found near that beautiful landmark. The second book in the series was born and with it Bill’s life long companion, Newf. Following the rules I traveled to different locations looking for that elusive inspiration. If you’ve read the series you see that Bill has been around quite a bit, though in some cases I changed the name of the place to protect the innocent. Anytime I get an idea I put it in my notebook and then copy it to the computer with the intention of using it one day. Now I’m taking a trip to the Caribbean, and my faithful notebook will be in my hand. Magnuscarter is the ninth book in the series but it won’t be the last. I have the skeletons of numbers ten and eleven already festering in my computer. Strangely I prefer to write science fiction especially if time travel is part of it, but Bill won’t let me alone. You’ll see that in the ninth book I tried to kill him off, but he’s far too strong.
